No Quade escape: Cooper strikes deal with ARU

Quade Cooper is set to announce on Friday that he is staying in Australian rugby union after accepting a revised two-year deal from the ARU.

The deal is believed to be similar to the $800,000 offer the ARU took off the table following his public criticism of the game and the atmosphere in the Wallabies camp.

Cooper was hit with a record $40,000 for the comments and virtually forced out of the code in Australia after being offered an ARU contract comprising of match payments and a $100,000 bonus if he was to start in 60 per cent of Tests for the Wallabies next season.

He had already agreed to a three-year deal with Queensland, worth about $400,000 per season, but the Reds contract could not be activated unless he accepted the ARU offer and had been set to quit Australian rugby union.

However, QRU chairman Jim Carmichael has worked closely with his ARU counterpart Michael Hawker to prepare a deal acceptable for Cooper to stay and the 23-year-old playmaker is understood to have rejected a lucrative offer from France.